5 - Retributive Justice and Citizen Engagement in Rural China and Beyond

Summary

The next question is whether these findings apply to the real world. Do we see similar patterns between real-world institutions for top-down discipline and citizen evaluations of their actual officials? Does retributive justice affect behavioral outcomes? And are retributive justice concerns salient in countries other than China? Chapter 5 assesses the external validity of the causal relationships presented in Chapter 4 in several ways. It draws on original surveys conducted both before and after the launch of the current anti-corruption campaign in China to examine whether citizens in localities with stronger top-down institutions for bureaucratic discipline have more positive evaluations of local authorities, higher levels of participation, and higher willingness to engage in voluntary compliance. The chapter then expands the investigation beyond rural China to discuss findings showing that retributive justice concerns help account for voluntary compliance behaviors among urban Chinese as well as in countries beyond China.